Oilers Deadline Possibilities – Bold Or Blah

MacT had a presser today to talk about plans going into next week’s trade deadline and what he thinks he’ll do to try and improve the team going forward. There wasn’t much substance to the media availability but I did take a few things out of it.

The Oilers have 9 pending unrestricted free agents, and the general manager plans on off loading some of these guys to try and regain some of the draft picks that he gave up in previous trades. Current the Oilers have their 1^st round pick and then will have to wait for the 4^th round in order to make their next selection. As far as drafts go, that isn’t at all optimal, as we know outside of the first 2 rounds of the draft it is highly unlikely a player selected will ever get a sniff in the NHL.

So MacT is going to try and gain some of those picks back. Personally I think that Ales Hemsky will be able to bring a 2^nd rounder in return for his rental services, who knows an extra pick in the later rounds might even be included if there happens to be a bidding war for Hemsky’s services (it’s really too bad that Hemmer wasn’t traded before as it was rumored ex-GM Steve Tambellini had been offered at minimum a 1^st round pick for him). Best value for Hemsky and an absolute win for MacT would be a prospect that was drafted a few years ago, someone that has been developing in the minors already. Maybe a player like Jack Skille (as mentioned previously here at the Oilers Rig).

Nick Schultz is likely to be gone as well. Schultz should garner a 5^th thru 7^th round pick to a team looking to increase its depth at defense going into the playoffs. Likely you can add Ryan Jones, Ryan Smyth and possibly Nick Belov to the list of players moving out. Of those three Smyth will probably hold the most value, although I don’t think opposing GM’s will want to part with too much.

There are two ways the Oilers see trade returns of NHL players is if Sam Gagner is moved out, But MacT isn’t about to trade away his second line center without an adequate return coming back. Meaning something that fills a team need like a bigger center (not likely) a winger with some size and skill or a defenseman with size and potential to play in the top 4.

The other way is if MacT is able to make a big splash but we know that will involve giving up a player or players more significant than Sam Gagner. I’ve said on record before, and I’ll say it again today, and probably again tonight on Oilers Rig Radio (Listen Here) but we are much more likely to see Bold moves from the organization after the season is over not leading up to the deadline.

There aren’t many teams that are going to be willing to give up the players the Oilers need to improve while they themselves are fighting for playoff position. When the season is over and team re-evaluate their needs, that is when MacT can do the most damage and when GM’s will be most willing to make bigger moves. Either way it will be interesting to see what the Rookie GM is able to pull out of his hat.

Thanks for Reading